Sunday, December 21, 2008

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Its raining like crazy in LA today. Would have been a great day to stay in bed under the blankets but gotta make some dough. Anyways, the Pehr Space Craft this weekend was a blast. We met a lot of cool people: crafters, bands, zinesters and others. We also made two new songs this weekend which is really very minimalist than the ones we have before. Less is indeed more. Check this out.

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

We spent a couple of fun times in Seattle last week. Went to the Urban Craft Uprising and checked out a lot of DIY arts and crafts that people are doing in that part of the country.Also stopped by the Vera Project where they also had some kind of fair. Rhea got her shirt printed and i got the back of my hoodie too. The place is an awesome all ages DIY space. We met with some of the volunteers there and they seem very nice. I gave a CD to the guy at the front, Dustin. It was the 5-song EP that we recorded as Magick Bitches. We also went to a lot of other awesome venues, namely the Josephine in Ballard where i saw this band called Love Tan rock the house. We also went to a gathering of DIY labels around Seattle/Olympia area at The Healthy Times Fun Club over at Capitol Hill organized by people from Hollow Earth Radio. The bands were done when we got there but we met some awesome people especially Ross, from Bicycle Records. They release mostly folk and electropop music -should be worth checking out. He is also in band called June Madrona.Anyways, we went to lot of other places, ate a lot of good food, vegan and seafood..even raw. We were loving the weather and made sure to keep warm by imbibing booze at every stop (almost!)Our friends Bre and Katya were such great fun to hang with. It was just great to be away from LA and checking out Seattle. Our decision to change our band name has a lot to do with the wonderful people and the amazing experience we had over there with their all-ages DIY community -i hate having to explain it over and over again. M_A-G-I-C-K-O-R-C-H-I-D-S!

We are just happy to be back and glad to be in time to be able to experience an amazing mind-blowing Wilderness show last night at The Echo...If you never heard of Wilderness...you should!

and btw, guess what Rhea brought back with her from Seattle...CLUE: bleep..ngoorkk..bzzzt...teeet...pffft...zooom...

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

after much thought and reflection we have decided to change our name from magick bitches to MAGICK ORCHIDS. hell! we might even change it whenever we feel like it or in every project we work on just to avoid branding . but bitches, magick or kids? i meant orchids? -a name is a name is a name and our name for now is MAGICK ORCHIDS.

ORCHIDS???

Orchids are renowned for their charming, captivating colors and unexplainable magnificence. Orchids are one of the most greeted flowers by flower enthusiasts around the world. “King of fragrant plants” is the term often labeled for this flowers due to it’s outstanding aroma.

• Orchids are among the most ancient of cultivated plants. The ancient Greeks believed orchids enhanced their sexual powers.

• Orchids are the largest group of flowering plants in nature. There are more than 25,000 identified species. A new species is discovered almost every day.

• There are more than 130,000 artificially created orchid hybrids, all officially recorded by the Royal Horticultural Society of England, the international registrar, and thousands more that have never been registered.

• Members of the Orchidaceae family grow on every continent except Antarctica. Orchids are found in every color except black.

• Two of the tallest orchids are Grammatophyllus speciosum, found in Malaysia, Sumatra and the Philippines, reaching heights of 25 feet; and Sobralia altissima, an orchid from Peru that can grow to a height of 44 feet, topped with clusters of six-inch flowers.

• The smallest orchids are from one genus: Platystele halbingeriana from Mexico and Platystele jungermanniodes from Central America. This flowering plant fits on a thumbnail.

• Orchid fragrances attract specific pollinators. The scents include coconut and chocolate, mentholatum and new-mown hay, as well as the most foul odors.

• Charles Darwin wrote one of the first major works on orchids, “On the Various Contrivances by Which Orchids are Fertilized by Insects.” It was written prior to “The Origin of Species.”

Saturday, November 29, 2008

this guy from san francisco called the genie is so bad-ass...hes got really great flow and groove and mad mad mad mad guitar skills. check em out!

was talking to gabe from the health club about re-recording some songs at their studio. would be fun to record the songs in a totally different approach and trying to acheive a totally different sound. we'll see.

Friday, November 28, 2008

Heres some pictures from the recordings we did with those new songs we have just posted. and also some from the Lucky Dragons/Pit Er Pat/Hecuba show at The Smell. I honestly forgot to take pics of Pit Er Pat's set because we were so blown away by it. It was a fun night. And oh yes! A drunk picture!

Thursday, November 27, 2008

The Bitches have posted yet another song up on our myspace page. It is called Fly Away and it's just the thing to cheer you up this Thanksgiving when your uncle is drunk and yelling at your sister. Or when your mom burns the turkey and your dad announces that he is gay. Fly Away! Enjoy the grub, kids, this is the end of excess!...love, rhea and champ

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Monday, November 24, 2008

Once again it is time to get bitchy and since we're about to grub this thanksgiving, hopefully with more than just ONE of the members of Menudo, we have added a new song to our myspace. It is called Seasick. We've got a few more to come so please check back with us. We've been experimenting with loopers and dubbing our songs out. Both Champ and I grew up with dub and would say that the music is very much deep down in our souls.

We will be heading up to Seattle in the next couple of weeks and are gonna play a house party. Why not come with us?! Virgin airlines is cheap these days and they show a cartoon during the safety announcement for those of us with short attention spans :-)

Check out our myspace and let us know what you think of the new song! Happy Thanksgiving!love,The bitches

Monday, November 3, 2008

Here are some pictures from Eric and Ixchel's Dead Mans Ball/House Party. We didn't play with actual drums and decided to play a whole different set with beats, percussions, loopers and effects. It was fun especially the dressing up part and having our friends play percussions with us.

Friday, October 24, 2008

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

We really had fun playing last Sunday's show at The Eagle Rock Bowling And Drinking Club. We are grateful to be able to borrow drums from Lee of the badasses, Bastidas who rocked the house as usual. They played some of their early songs which was awesome. I was personally glad that they ended their songs with one of my personal faves "Mediterranean Oasis". We went on after them and got our songs working one after another. Rhea got crazy on "Automatic/Dramatic" and i had a few little glitches here and there especially with the loopers which I'm still getting used to but we managed through it all and was lucky enough to be followed by the amazing Kid Infinity who always knew how to get the party moving. This was the first time that I actually saw Ryan performing without his glasses, which he said he lost. Well, hope he gets one seen! Because those damn lights rock the hell out of yer brains!

Freakstik was also playing music in between sets with his new set up which is very ergonomic for shows since he said that its kind of pointless to carry loads and loads of records and spin in between bands for 15-30 minutes. So, Don being the "Macgyver" that he is devised a set-up that all fitted in what seemed like a make-up box. It's practically two I-pods connected to a mixer and voila! He's got the most practical DJ set-up that he can take with him all along. I know that some purists will whine and bitch about how its not the same as having actual records. Of course its not the same! But who cares? Do people really care if its an actual record playing in between bands during shows? I'm sure everybody is pretty occupied drinking and talking most of the time that all the effort bringing stacks of records seems too much. Anyways, if you see Don playing music in one of them shows, check out his set-up and give him a big wet kiss on the lips for setting up this awesome show with Janine and Marie who keep the Eagle Rock Bowling and Drinking club going.

Anyways, we are now looking forward to the completion of "Dirty Pop Songs" and the Halloween Haunted Party at Ixchel's which will be awesome becoz everyone will be in costume!

Sunday, October 19, 2008

Friday, October 17, 2008

After going to a film showing of independent films and video from the Philippines, we dropped by The Echo Curio to pick up Rhea's camera bag that she left there the last time we were there and somehow, we were glad to catch the set of Crooked Cowboy and the Freshwater Indians who was really fucking amazing. I think their songs evoke a spaghetti western apocalypse. I would say there are very steam punk elements about it. Honestly, I'm not so much for all the western flair that's been really popular with a lot of indie rock bands flirting with Americana and evoking Grievous Angel as if they are the first to d o it but i would say that this one is nothing like those crop of bands because from the moment they played their first song with two bass guitars, i knew their music was truly unique. and i just found out that they just recently played at the Echoplex with 40-piece Orchestra. I guess i totally missed that one but i would love to check them out again soon.

Anyways, we ended up hanging out at the Curio longer than we thought. The eccentric performance artist named Joe was there. He informed us that they might have some artspace opening up soon right by our side of the tracks. These are some of the guys that used to run the notorious Zamakibo. Now that is something to really look forward to!

Rhea and I also ended up meeting Ethan Port from the art-punk pioneers,Savage Republic who just recently reformed again to play a show at the Echoplex (Savage Republic was billed with Chrome, who cancelled on the last minute!) He was telling me about this other project he does called F-Space which uses pretty much a lot of the pyrotechnics that SR used to do back in the days. From what he told me it sounds really interesting. So I'm going to check those guys out.

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Entrenched interests use despair, confusion and apathy to prevent change. They encourage modes of thinking which lead us to believe that problems are insolvable, that nothing we do can matter, that the issue is too complex to present even the opportunity for change. It is a long-standing political art to sow the seeds of mistrust between those you would rule over: as Machiavelli said, tyrants do not care if they are hated, so long as those under them do not love one another. Cynicism is often seen as a rebellious attitude in Western popular culture, but, in reality, cynicism in average people is the attitude exactly most likely to conform to the desires of the powerful – cynicism is obedience.

Optimism, by contrast, especially optimism which is neither foolish nor silent, can be revolutionary. Where no one believes in a better future, despair is a logical choice, and people in despair almost never change anything. Where no one believes a better solution is possible, those benefiting from the continuation of a problem are safe. Where no one believes in the possibility of action, apathy becomes an insurmountable obstacle to reform. But introduce intelligent reasons for believing that action is possible, that better solutions are available, and that a better future can be built, and you unleash the power of people to act out of their highest principles. Shared belief in a better future is the strongest glue there is: it creates the opportunity for us to love one another, and love is an explosive force in politics.

Great movements for social change always begin with statements of great optimism.

Friday, October 10, 2008

Sooner or later, we are planning to have people play and sing with us. Well, that is if they are willing to learn the songs that we make. We just wanted this to be fun for everyone. Anyways, here is the lyrics to band together in case anyone is interested to sing along with us in future shows. We will be posting more lyrics soon for everyone to familiarize and learn!

BAND TOGETHER

Well she was born in East Los AngelesShe took a train just to see where it would endShe went away looking for the summerFrom my home to yours until she lost itAlways tired and always busyAlways saying she's gonna miss me..

Forget the sales! Forget the rentals!Forget the lessons! Forget the songs!Lets band together in jubilation!In exaltation! while we can!

Thursday, October 9, 2008

We are almost done mastering the 5 songs that will be going in the "Dirty Pop Songs" EP. We are excited because we are doing this one ourselves and having the grandest time with it. Hopefully, we can make more records in the future.

Friday, September 26, 2008

Sound is a form of energy that is transmitted by pressure variations which the human ear can detect. When one plays a musical instrument, say a guitar, the vibrating chords set air particles into vibration and generate pressure waves in the air. A person nearby may then hear the sound of the guitar when the pressure waves are perceived by the ear. Sound can also travel through other media, such as water or steel.

Apart from musical instruments, sound can be produced by many other sources - man's vocal cord, a running engine, a vibrating loudspeaker diaphragm, an operating machine tool, and so on. Click on the demo buttons and you will hear the noise from different sources.

Noise is unwanted sound. Usually the sound of a violin is referred to as music - is something pleasing. Depending on other factors, the sound may be perceived as noise.

Noise perception is subjective. Factors such as the magnitude, characteristics, duration, and time of occurrence may affect one's subjective impression of the noise.http://www.epd.gov.hk/epd/noise_education/web/ENG_EPD_HTML/m1/intro_1.html

We have been experimenting a lot with loops and voices. We are coming up with new material and been eating a lot of those magick brownies. Its been a tripped out week.Also figured out a way to do live dubbing with the loopers and the effects. Rhea calls it the "lo-fi-indie-dub". The Electro Harmonix 2880 looper is awesome becoz it has this reverse button that totally reverses the on-going loop. Its great to get an experience of hands on dub techniques.

Friday, September 12, 2008

Thursday, August 28, 2008

After getting together and figuring out a lot of the new songs we have finally managed to get different rough versions of our songs recorded . Gabe from The Health Club helped a lot by recording us live at their studio where we have rehearsed this week. We did it just so we could hear what we sounded like live which we have never done before. It actually sounded great, however the arrangement was totally fucked up and since it was live, its hard to adjust the levels. We are using the material as a reference for actual recordings.

We also have another set of recorded versions in which we overdubbed some vocals just so we could listen to it or give people an idea of what we sound like. Honestly, we are just tired of people asking what we sound like everytime we talk about the Bitches. So, there you go. We have posted most of those songs in our myspace page. Yes! You heard it right! We have decided and agreed that it is the best way to keep in touch with other bands. Though we are not entirely relying on it a hundred percent, it is safe to say that, it is merely a means to an ends.

The songs that are currently uploaded there are:-Distance Pleaser-Oh Nothing!-Lets Band Together!-Medic Ate It-Getaway

We also have some other recordings that we will be posting here soon. The Bitches are looking forward to playing this Saturday with Kate Strand and The Euro Trash, Bastidas!, The Miles Approach and Meho Plaza. There might also be some acoustic sets right before the show. Please buy food and drinks from Tribal Cafe to support the place. They have great healthy stuff on their menu. Seriously!

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

We are going to be playing with these badass bands that we totally dig so I guess its fair to say that this show is going to be bitchin'!!! Be there and enjoy the great menu and beverages from Tribal Cafe!

“Dub offered the perfect score to the world’s deepening post-colonial dusk. Started, so legend goes, by Kingston's King Tubby in his studio on 18 Drumille Avenue, dub is basically this: a song sunk into the cavernous depths of a mixing board, stripped of its secure pop substances, and returned to the world as an electrified monster or vampire. (It's no accident that vampires appear on the covers of numerous dub LPs.) With dub, what was once flesh and bone is transformed into vague melodies that suddenly appear and vanish, moans that rise and recede, and bass lines that move through the echo-haze like phantoms in a haunted house.Dub is the "ghost dimension" of the real pop song; there is no body in dub, just a flickering afterimage of what was once a body.” (Charles Mudede)